Twitchy Thumbs: Silent Hill (1999)

The following is what would have been the first entry in an ongoing column about video games. However, since the site will no longer be updating after June 15th, only one entry was produced. We hope you enjoy!

Way
back in 1999 when Silent
Hill was
released for the Playstation, videogaming was in the middle of a
massive image shift. With the arrival and success of the Playstation
in 1996 gaming was becoming mainstream and cool. It was no longer
considered the past time of pasty kids with no friends or the
hopelessly nerdy. Advances in technology enabled developers to add a
cinematic sheen to their games for the first time and titles like
Gran
Turismo,
Resident
Evil and
Metal Gear
Solid were
leading the pack in this new cinematic approach. Even Hollywood was
getting in on this blossoming medium, with the likes of Bruce Willis
lending his likeness and voice to generic shoot em up Apocalypse.
And in the midst of all this came Silent
Hill.
Initially seen as a rival to flagship horror franchise Resident
Evil, it
went on to become a big success in its own right and the years since
have seen numerous sequels, spin-offs, merchandising, films and even
a remake. The series even has its own iconic bogeyman in the hulking
shape of Pyramid Head. But it all started with the first game, a
relentless, nerve shredding nightmare.

The
game's memorable opening sees hero Harry Mason and his young
daughter Cheryl taking a trip to the quiet mountain town of Silent
Hill. While driving late at night Harry swerves to avoid hitting a
figure who walks out into the middle of the road and ends up crashing
his jeep. He wakes up to find his daughter missing and he stumbles
into Silent Hill to look for her, only to find the town empty and
shrouded in an eerie fog. He catches a quick glimpse of a girl who
looks like Cheryl and chases her down an alleyway. The deeper he gets
the darker and narrower the alley becomes, until a distant siren
sounds and plunges the world into darkness. He uses a lighter to see
where he's going and finds a trail of blood and bodies, before
being surrounded by nightmarish creatures that proceed to kill him.
Yes, the hero dies in the first 10 minutes of the game. But it's okay
because he wakes from his horrible nightmare in a cafe with a cop
for company, and at this point, the game has your undivided
attention.

This
opening segment lays all the groundwork for what lies ahead. As well
as the basics of introducing you to the world and the controls, it
also starts to work on you psychologically, playing exactly like a
nightmare. The deeper you go down that alleyway the more that feeling
of dread starts to gnaw at you. You know something bad is about to
happen, and everything from the screeching industrial soundtrack to
the dizzying camera angles reinforces this. If you try to backtrack
the way you came you face a dead end, forcing you to confront
whatever's ahead. At the time the game came out no other horror
title had manipulated the player's fears like this, and when
talking about why the game worked so well you have to look at what it
did differently.

For
starters, as a hero Harry Mason was a complete breath of fresh air,
as he was anything but. He's a terrible shot with a gun and he's
not much better at hand to hand combat. If he runs for an extended
period of time he start's panting like a chain smoker. He has no
one-liners or special moves. Basically, he's a wimp. Whereas
most game's will put you in the role of an elite soldier or tough
cop with lots of firepower and health, Silent
Hill puts
you alone in the dark surrounded by monsters. Wisely recognising that
a capable hero with an assault rifle is detrimental to building true
fear the game has stripped you of all these things. You
are not supposed to feel capable. You are supposed to feel panicked
and helpless, as you would more than likely feel if you were in the
character's shoes.

Adding
to this feeling of vulnerability is the ominous fog that surrounds
the town. The fog serves the function (besides masking the graphical
limitations of the Playstation) of giving the surrounding monsters a
place to hide, making you jump at every squawk or screech. Early in
the game you receive a broken radio that emits a crackling noise
whenever a monster is nearby. The closer you get the louder the
static becomes, an effect that can really grate on your nerves after
awhile. Knowing an enemy is nearby but not being able to pinpoint it
puts you in a constant state of anxiety. Things aren't much better
when you head indoors. In many cases a small clip-on flashlight will be
Harry's only source of light, and of course this has the added
disadvantage of drawing the monsters TO you. So you can turn it off
and stumble around in the dark, or leave it on and try to outrun
whatever's chasing you. And neither choice is very attractive.
These gameplay mechanics are carefully designed to keep you feeling
overwhelmed. The character is in a stressful situation and the game
want you to experience that stress right alongside him.

Replaying
a game that is now twelve years old brings with it the warm glow of
nostalgia as well as exposing the fact that a lot of elements haven't
aged well. Obviously the graphics don't hold up compared to modern
games, although it still looks handsome in parts. Character movement
is often stiff and unresponsive. Combat can be incredibly
frustrating. More than once when I found myself fighting against two
or more monsters at a time, the auto aim decided to lock onto a
creature in the distance, ignoring the one nearest to me. And since
Harry is a bad shot at the best of times, none of the bullets even
hit the monster I was locked onto. Some of the puzzles you encounter
have needlessly complex solutions. There is a certain amount of
satisfaction to be had from solving one all on your own, but more
often than not the Internet had to provide the answer (I'm looking
at YOU piano puzzle!). But these complaints aside, the game is still
great fun to play, and at no time are you bored with it.

And
the gameplay compensates for the lack of a truly compelling plot. As
it unfolds you encounter doppelgangers, drug running doctors, evil
cults and the birth of some kind of demon god and the whole thing is
messy and convoluted. The game sets up a good mystery but it has
trouble paying it off in a satisfying way, and I'm still not
entirely sure what happened. And in keeping with the general quality
of voice acting at the time the performances are pretty stilted. But
it's worth noting the plot itself shows a level of maturity that
wasn't found in many games at the time, being that it's based on
the age old fear of the loss of a child. Subsequent games in the
series would improve greatly on the gameplay and story elements
(Silent
Hill 2 is
generally considered the series' highpoint) but since Silent
Hill was
the game that was breaking this new ground some plot wrinkles are
forgivable. The imagery and art direction is rich in subtext. There
is the slightly sexual edge to some of the creatures (the faceless
nurses, the giant maggot etc). Fear of hospitalisation is a recurring
theme, being seen in the abandoned wheelchairs and blood splattered
hospital gurneys that litter the levels.

And
with this imagery it's clear that developers Konami were obviously
inspired by years of horror literature and movies in creating the
game. Just looking at the basic setup of the plot an instant literary
influence would be Stephen King's The
Mist, with
its story of ordinary people surrounded by a mysterious mist filled
with deadly creatures. The names of the various streets in Silent
Hill reference famous authors such as Richard Matheson, Mary Shelly
and Ray Bradbury. Fairy tales play a big part in the puzzles you come
across with Alice
in Wonderland
and The
Wizard of Oz
amongst others being referenced. Filmic references come through
strongly in the sinister Otherworld which plays like its straight out
of Hellraiser.
It's a rusty, blood smeared nightmare with hanging chains and bound
bodies littering the walls and corridors. The "Bad" ending of the
game sees a dead Harry slumped over in his crashed jeep suggesting it
was all a dying dream, an ideacommon to a number of psychological horror thrillers.
And the image of a terrified, screaming Cheryl being played on
multiple television sets throughout one level wouldn't look out of
place in a David Lynch film.

And
just as books and films inspired the game, the inspiration came full
circle in 2006 when director Christophe Gans directed a big screen
adaptation of Silent
Hill and
created probably the best received game to film translation. Harry
underwent a sex change and become Rose DeSaliva, but overall the film
remains incredibly faithful to its source material. The opening scene
of the game is recreated shot for shot. The visual design, the
creatures and the game's soundtrack are all retained. Some might
argue that it was too slavish an adaptation, as a montage of actress
Radha Mitchell repeatedly looking at a town map was hardly necessary.
And intentionally or not, it also recreated the convoluted plot and
stilted dialogue of the game. But it still stands as a visually
stunning and artfully directed horror film that respects its
videogame origins. A sequel, based on the plot of the third game, is
due for release next year.

And
finally no article on the game would be complete without mentioning
the contributions of series composer and sound designer Akira
Yamaoka. His effect on the atmosphere of the game cannot be
underestimated. His score is a masterclass in building tension and
unease, and depending on the scene his music can switch between
beautiful and melancholy to dark and despairing. His music is often
mixed up with the sound design, almost as if the music is emanating
from the world itself. In the case of the Otherworld sections his
music will comprised almost entirely of harsh industrial sound
effects, designed to cause maximum apprehension. His music is such a
vital part of what makes the game (and the series as a whole) work
that it's almost impossible to imagine without it.

Even
if the look and design of the game have not aged well, that doesn't
change the fact that Silent
Hill is an
undoubted landmark in the horror videogame genre. It pioneered
gameplay and design choices that have been continuously "borrowed"
by many other games in the decade since its release and its impact on
the genre is undeniable. If you haven't played it before then take
it from me, a trip to the sleepy little town of Silent Hill is a trip
well worth taking.